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School Focused Youth Service

School Focused Youth Services (SFYS) is funded through the Department of Education and Training and works with schools to support young people aged 10-18 years who are attending school, but are vulnerable to or showing signs of disengagement.

The service partners with schools and community organisations to work together to ensure young people remain connected to education.

SFYS connects schools to a wide range of services and focuses on three key areas:

Governance and planning

Capacity Building

Targeted Group Interventions

Governance and planning

SFYS has developed a Working Group to support schools and agencies to work together to focus on supports for our most vulnerable young people. Part of the planning process is to identify cohorts particularly vulnerable to disengagement. The Working Group has representation from the Department of Education and Training, Gateway LLEN, Catholic, State and Independent schools; Monash University; Therapeutic Engagement Support Services, MI Fellowship; Wavecare and City of Monash.

To help identify the needs of students SFYS has engaged Resilient Youth Australia to survey students to help schools further identify cohorts of students that require extra supports.

Capacity Building

To build the capacity of schools and teachers to support the most vulnerable students, SFYS partners with educational specialists to provide targeted training to schools to work with their most vulnerable. Some examples of capacity building projects include:

Professional development of wellbeing staff and school leadership to help them manage the behaviours of at risk young people.

Professional supervision of wellbeing staff in schools to help them navigate the service system, and support staff to manage the demands of the most vulnerable families using a clinical framework.

Linking schools to research organisations to help schools develop best practice models to support their most vulnerable using the latest research.

Targeted group Interventions

A range of targeted interventions have been developed to support schools and students. Some examples of interventions include:

Targeted group programs that are tailored to meet the individual needs of at risk students to help build their self-esteem and confidence and remain connected to school.

Transition programs developed to support students through the difficult transition from primary to secondary school.

For more information on School Focused Youth Service please contact Tim Moran, School Focused Youth Service Coordinator on 9518 3900 or 0427 401 757 or email timm@monash.vic.gov.au